All the kings horses

On a dime, his demeanor began to shift. “Yeah, I... I'm sorry. I must've hit my head pretty hard. I don't remember a thing, actually," The tones of his admittance paired with the frown seemed genuine enough. The viper’s heart rate increased subtly, the exchange resonating like the thrill of a productive hunt.

Checkmate.

She had won, for now, and had it not been counterproductive to her victory the woman would have gleamed a successful smile from ear to ear. Yet a part of her did not relax to bask in the glory of the victory of the deceit. It was the part of her that drove her to silently question the man and his own motives. Had he only pretended to go along with her convoluted explanation as a means of duping her himself? Was he too biding his time, awaiting a better opportunity to strike? She’d keep him at an arms distance as a result. This was still a guard after all, and had his memory truly escaped him, there was no promise that it would not return just as suddenly as it had departed. Lilah’s lips produced a hard line, followed by a half-hearted shrug. “I’m okay as I can be being in— Wherever we are now thanks to you.”

It was truly strange seeing this side of any guard, but the added layer of ex childhood friend made the situation especially bizarre. She had tried to imagine what he would have been like had the guard not stolen him away; Stolen his soul away. The boy she knew had been kind and thoughtful, everything that she was not. Perhaps that was what had enamored her so. As she stood with him before her now, she considered all they ways that small boy had changed. As an pup, Osiris’s was always larger than her. He was slightly older, his pelt a mottled merle gray that was just as soft and comforting as his large sapphire hued eyes. Adult Osiris however was large and well defined with muscles upon every curve and contour. His edges were sharp, body primed with rugged physicality, and masculine down to each claw. Had she not known better, she’d have thought the two to be entirely different men. The telltale sign that linked them was held within his unchanging eyes.

Despite the outward appearance of strength however, the man’s shoulders began to sink downward and his body appeared to physically waver. The entirety of the ordeal had taken its toll on him. “We should find somewhere you can rest.” The words escaped her mouth before she could reel them back in, before she could even contemplate what she said or why she had said it. Relatively unscathed from the ordeal, she had apparently avoided the torrent of hard water that had brought down his vessel. There was a brief sting of guilt that twinged beneath the surface, but this man was still a guard. He was no longer her friend, no longer anything but someone here to apprehend her and bring her to the executioners block. Her teeth sank into her lip.